Welcome to EscrowLock.
The best escrow payment service company for Nigeria, Africa and international use, offering reliable online and offline buyer-protection, seller-protection, transaction and trade assurance solutions. Available to individuals, freelancers, small businesses, large companies and organizations.
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About EscrowLock
Nigeria's Award-Winning Escrow Service Platform
EscrowLock is an eCommerce and ICT company that is popular for its buyer and seller protection service, in which it receives and secures payment from a buyer, and then releases it to the seller when the buyer has received the transacted goods or services in pre-agreed condition.
This helps to protect each party from any fraud or foul play from the other, thereby enhancing trust in online transactions and supporting the growth of micro, small and medium businesses.
Awards
EscrowLock is proudly one of the winners of the $100 million Small Business Grant Program organized by the world’s largest social media company, Facebook Inc.
The grant is being utilized to strengthen the EscrowLock system in order to more efficiently support individuals and small businesses that sell products and services across platforms such as Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp and other online and offline channels.
Simple Steps to Using EscrowLock
1. Buyer and Seller Agree to Terms and Start Transaction
The buyer and seller negotiate and reach an agreement concerning the product or service to be transacted. This includes, among others, the features and condition, as well as the price and mode of delivery (if applicable). Then one party, usually the buyer, starts the transaction on EscrowLock.
2. Buyer Deposits Payment to A Dedicated Escrow Account Provided by EscrowLock
Buyer makes a commitment by depositing the payment for such goods/services to a dedicated bank account provided by EscrowLock, where the payment is safely locked until seller fulfills his part of the bargain. Note: For safety reasons and to meet monitoring and regulatory requirements, EscrowLock can only make use of special bank accounts that are in its corporate name and are strictly domiciled in a commercial bank regulated by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) and insured by the Nigerian Deposit Insurance Corporation (NDIC), or similar foriegn body.
3. Seller Delivers Product/Service To Buyer
Upon receipt of payment from buyer, EscrowLock informs seller to proceed with delivering the goods/services being transacted to the buyer.
4. EscrowLock Releases Seller's Payment
In the absence of dispute from the buyer within a specific time frame, EscrowLock "unlocks" the payment and releases it to the seller, and everyone is happy.
Who can Use EscrowLock for Transactions?
Buyers
If you ever get to buy anything online, be it an item or a service, then EscrowLock is for you.
You should never risk losing your hard earned money to fraudsters who pose as genuine sellers online.
Sellers
If you sell physical goods or services online, be it through Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp or via other websites, you should always use EscrowLock to receive your payments in order to protect you from unserious or even fraudulent buyers.
Our services apply to both individuals and registered businesses.
Others
This group includes consultants, contractors and other categories of people that may not necessarily be seen as buyers or sellers in the traditional sense.
You can use EscrowLock to carry out just about anly legitimate transaction.
Benefit for Buyers
Making money is risky enough, spending it shouldn't be.
The ultimate benefit of using EscrowLock as a buyer is peace of mind.
Instead of paying to the seller directly (and run the risk of having them make away with your money), you make the payment to our special escrow bank account so that we can lock it there and then ask the seller to send you the goods or provide you with the services paid for.
When genuine sellers become aware that you have released the money to us (a trusted independent body), they become confident that you are indeed serious, so they go ahead with providing you with the required product/service even if it means borrowing to fund it.
However, mischievous sellers or outright fraudsters will not want to continue with the transaction as their aim of directly obtaining money from you has been defeated.
So when you use EscrowLock, you won’t have to spend your precious time feeling anxious or worried if the goods or service you paid for will be delivered at all, or if a substandard quality is what you’ll receive.
You also get to avoid any chance of having heartbreak or depression that could stem from realizing that you have been duped of your hard earned money.
Once you notice any foul play from the other party while using EscrowLock, simply raise a dispute and we’d investigate and send back your money (less our service charge) if we confirm the foul play.
Benefits for Sellers
Focus on making more sales, safely.
Get more sales
A major challenge that micro and small scale enterprises (including those run by individuals) face is the issue of trust when it comes to settling payment and actual exchange of goods and services.
As a seller, some customers may be genuinely interested in what you are selling but may not go ahead to patronize you due to uncertainty on what may happen after they make payment.
Lots of small businesses lose sales because of this.
Using EscrowLock as a trusted middleman that momentarily holds the transaction amount gives the buyers the confidence that you are genuine, since they can easily get back their money from EscrowLock should anything go wrong from your end.
This encourages a lot of them to purchase your goods/ services.
Avoid Unserious Buyers and Risk of Pay-On-Delivery
Some sellers have tried resorting to Pay-On-Delivery in the bid to manage skepticism and enhance customers’ trust.
This hasn’t worked well at all as it leaves room for a lot of unserious buyers to order for products, only to change their minds later and either switch off their phones or not respond to calls from delivery agents. This incurs hefty losses on the sellers. Using EscrowLock is a good way to avoid the risk with Pay-On-Delivery and also sieve off unserious buyers.
Delay on business Registration
Registering a business can have some advantages, but it also comes with other government and banking responsibilities that may be quite burdensome and not worth it for a starter.
As an individual who sells products or services, it is usually best to only register a business after you must have run it for a reasonable period of time.
This affords you the chance to know how lucrative the business is, and to decide if you would like to continue running it and if it will be worth registering.
So, while you take your time to make a decision, you could always make your sales through EscrowLock and enjoy all the benefits of a registered business.
Transact from Home, confidently
On certain occasions, buyers may like to visit your business location to enable them see and be sure of what they are buying before making payment – to minimize risk of fraud or avoid stories that touch.
However, renting a business premises can be costly and keeping up with the maintenance and regulatory requirements can be stressful.
Using EscrowLock can give some assurance to your customers and eliminate the need for them to visit your premises.
So you save money on renting a shop or office space and enjoy the convenience of running your business from home.
Keep Safe from Armed Robbers and Kidnappers
There have been several stories in recent times about how criminals pose as genuine buyers on different online forums to lure unsuspecting sellers to a physical location where they get to rob them.
A particular case was one that happened at Igando, Lagos State, in which two young men connected with a seller on Jiji.ng and then robbed the seller of his ware (a fairly used mobile phone) at gun point.
Although the buyers were extra-judicially killed by supposed members of the police force, this highlight the risks sellers may face during physical transactions.
Using EscrowLock can help avoid such risks associated with physical interaction while also ensuring safety of transaction.
And more
Banking
To help ensure that your money is safe, EscrowLock only makes use of the following commercial banks that are licensed by the Central Bank of Nigeria and insured by the Nigerian Deposit Insurance Corporation (NDIC).
Stanbic IBTC Bank
United Bank for Africa
Start Transaction
Click on the Start Transaction button below to get started.
Frequently Asked Questions?
FAQ
Starting a transaction on EscrowLock is free. You shouldn’t have to pay any fees when nothing has been done. That way, even if you start a transaction and decide to change your mind later about it, you don’t lose any money.
The service fee on our platform can always be seen on the Fees page. It is usually not more than 3.25 percent and can be as low as 1.25 percent of transaction amount (in Naira).
You need an active email address to enable you receive updates and alerts regarding the transactions. This applies to all parties, irrespective of whether you are a seller or buyer.
It is important to keep such email address secured, but even more important to never share any email received from us with a third party.
This is because some of our emails contain unique security tokens, so anyone who accesses them can breach your account with us.
Keep records.
It is vital to keep a lot of records, whether in form texts, audio, pictures and even videos.
Do this every step of the way until the transaction is concluded.
If you are shipping or way-billing an item to a buyer, make a video of it at the park and keep the record.
If you are picking up an item from the seller, make a video of the collection process and save somewhere.
Keep records of audio calls, chats, and all.
Such records will help inform our decisions in case there’s any dispute.
Our eCommerce and escrow service is online-based, so we currently serve all locations in Nigeria – be it Lagos, Abuja, Port Harcourt, Onitsha, Kano, Kaduna, Enugu, Ogun and other areas in Nigeria.
International users intending to transact in Nigerian Naira can currently use our service.
More currencies will be added soon to cater for wider locations including Ghana, Kenya and other African countries.
If your question has not been treated by this Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ), kindly use the form on the Contact page to send us an email with your question.